New coaches have Stamford Academy believing

By TOM EVANS Hour staff writer

Published
7:00 pm EST, Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Former Weston High basketball standouts John Galvin, second from left, and Mike Evans, center, are coaching the team at Stamford Academy. Evans, a sweet-shooting guard during his heyday on the hardwood, is the head coach and the 6-foot-9 Galvin, who went on to play at Fairleigh Dickinson after Weston High, is one of his assistants.

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Former Weston High basketball standouts John Galvin, second from left, and Mike Evans, center, are coaching the team at Stamford Academy. Evans, a sweet-shooting guard during his

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Former Weston High basketball standouts John Galvin, second from left, and Mike Evans, center, are coaching the team at Stamford Academy. Evans, a sweet-shooting guard during his heyday on the hardwood, is the head coach and the 6-foot-9 Galvin, who went on to play at Fairleigh Dickinson after Weston High, is one of his assistants.

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Former Weston High basketball standouts John Galvin, second from left, and Mike Evans, center, are coaching the team at Stamford Academy. Evans, a sweet-shooting guard during his

WESTON -- Mike Evans and John Galvin both grew up and began their basketball careers in Weston, albeit a few years apart.

Several years later the two Trojan legends -- Evans is fifth on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,002 points while Galvin's 1,900 puts him second in program history -- have been re-united as coaches a few miles to the southwest at Stamford Academy.

While it may seem unusual that Evans, the head coach, and Galvin -- a 2011 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University -- began coaching at what Evans describes as "a last-option school," recent history would suggest otherwise.

In 2006, Evans and David Cullen co-founded Full Court Peace, a non-profit organization whose mission is to use basketball to foster lasting friendships among teenagers in rival communities in war-torn or drug-ravaged areas of the world.

By forming teams of teens from opposing neighborhoods, Full Court Peace's goals of mentorship, teaching skills, sportsmanship and enduring friendships are accomplished through the challenges of athletic competition.

"When I worked for Full Court Peace, I worked with kids in rough situations when I was playing professional basketball in Northern Ireland," said Evans, FCP's executive director. "There are segregation walls in Northern Ireland (separating Protestant and Catholic youths), and we got kids from both sides of the wall playing together. The kids I targeted were 17-year-olds, who latched on to me, but they had been getting into bad stuff. I asked them to play and we got them together. The kids got along to the point that they started social networking."

Evans brought a team of those Irish players to Weston in 2007, and though the scores were lopsided, the experience was invaluable, according to the executive director.

"We had a tournament in Darien, and we lost every game by 60 points, but the kids loved it," Evans said. "The kids remained close, and I built a staff with some guys from Hamilton (College, Clinton, N.Y., Evans alma mater, 2001). In Northern Ireland, basketball was the only sport not tied to religion -- Protestants have cricket and rugby, and Catholics are passionate about soccer -- but basketball is not controlled by the government."

The success across the pond prompted Evans and FCP to go to work in this hemisphere.

In 2010, the organization began working in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican border town torn apart by the drug trade, and a year later Galvin and another Weston star, Robbie Cisca, were part of a trip to Cuba to spread the word for FCP.

"The ambassador trip to Cuba was very experimental, with John and Robbie," Evans said. "What better way to connect Cubans and Americans than through basketball? It was less about playing basketball than about spreading social change. We gave them the power to develop leagues. In Ciudad Juarez, which was ravaged by the drug war, we were trying to build courts in a de-militarized zone. I saw a dead body on my first trip there."

So after these eye-opening experiences -- and after serving as a graduate assistant for head coach Tommy Ameker at Harvard last season -- Evans was ready for something more steady.

"I'm 29, and I may have aged twice as much," Evans said. "I was offered the Stamford Academy job, and thankfully John Galvin was available to come on as an assistant."

For his part, Galvin never expected to be holding a dry erase board on basketball sidelines, after receiving his degree in marketing from Fairleigh DIckinson.

"We went to Cuba this past summer for Full Court Peace, and I've known Mike a long time," Galvin said. "He was the senior captain (at Weston) when I was in the sixth grade. He reached out to me two days before practice started, the Monday after Thanksgiving, and so far I've loved it."

Still at his playing dimensions of 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, Galvin's size doesn't hurt when trying to get a point across to his young charges.

"The kids have been very receptive of my teaching," Galvin said. "The first day I came in with my sneakers on and I played with them. I told them I got a full (college) scholarship and scored 1,900 points in high school, so they listen. I try to help them out, and it's very rewarding. After all the stuff they are going through in their lives it's that much more rewarding."

The mission of Stamford Academy, a charter school supported by Domus, a Stamford-based youth-support agency, speaks to Galvin's previous statement: "To re-engage and guide students in acknowledging and developing their educational strengths while acquiring the skills to contribute positively to themselves and their community."

Now in its third season as a CIAC varsity program, Galvin realizes coaching the Spartans will have its ups and downs.

"There have been a lot of frustrating days," Galvin said. "Sometimes the kids don't want to work hard. We got the program's first-ever win (against Bullard-Havens last Wednesday), after the team didn't win a game their first two seasons. I feel we've turned the corner with these kids. As long as they keep getting better, that's all we can ask for."

Evans is excited to have Galvin, along with Cameron Swallen of Fairfield on Xs and Os, on his bench.

"John is a genius post player," Evans said. "I had no knowledge of that. He's a perfect supplement on this staff. We complement each other. John's also an outsider -- he doesn't work at the school -- and he brings a unique perspective. It's very tough in that school. I may be called 'head coach' but I am not making all the decisions."

Evans also believes he has some talent among the troubled athletes he and Galvin are molding into a cohesive unit.

"We have a lot of talent, and a lot of guys who haven't played structured basketball," Evans said. "Shy Quinn-Dix is our leader and our scorer, and he has a bright future in basketball and beyond. Nelson Diaz is a scrappy, hard-nosed player, Juwan Gonsalves is ball-savvy and an extension of the coach on the court, and Michael Catchings is a talented big man."

The last few years have gotten Evans ready for this task.

"There's a lot of coaching turnover at Stamford Academy, but it's a diamond in the rough," Evans said. "This school supports its sports programs more than any school I've been at. These kids have been neglected, and we're trying to make up for those lost years. I'm very excited about it. I've been prepared to do this by far the hardest challenges of my life in war-torn Belfast, drug-war-ravaged Mexico, and poverty stricken Cuba. But (Stamford Academy) is the hardest."

New practice and game uniforms, along with the use of a gymnasium at the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering on High Ridge Road in Stamford has lifted team spirits.

"All the new stuff; the kids are very, very excited," Galvin said. "It's a sign to them that it's a new program. They don't have a gym (at Stamford Academy) so they didn't practice last year. Now we practice at AITE, and we invite kids to come along for the ride and be part of this turnaround."

And while Galvin wasn't thinking about coaching when he left Madison, N.J., with his diploma, the request from Evans may have opened a new career path.

"A year ago I couldn't have imagined I'd be here, but I'm happy I am," said the son of Joseph and Jeanne Galvin. "If Mike didn't call I wouldn't have known I loved coaching. I never saw myself as a coach. My parents are behind everything I do. They've always been supportive of everything I do. My ideal job would be a sales job in New York City, but this coaching has made me re-think about staying in basketball. It's been so rewarding."

Evans has also seen that excitement in his young players' eyes.

"Being a coach is such a unique position to be in," Evans said. "A teacher is different than a coach. A kid is not ranting and raving about math. Now kids have practice gear and game jerseys, and a place to practice. Parents tell me 'I know you can help me reach my son.' Basketball starts to become something kids can attach to."

Despite a big loss to the Trojans on Friday night, Evans was upbeat.

"There was no negativity," he said. "We lost the second half by one point. The first half was too much for them."

Evans feels he never would have been in this position without the influence of his high school coach, Carl Charles, who is now the head coach at Ridgefield.

"Coach Charles has always been a mentor to me in basketball and life in ways I can't describe," Evans said. "He's been great with advice. I know we're a great program when we're ready to take on Ridgefield."